STRATFORD - The Stratford wrestlers will get tested right out of the blocks at the WIAA state team tournament.

The No. 1 ranked Tigers take on Spring Valley/Elmwood, the No. 2 ranked team in Division 3 and the defending state champion. The two top ranked teams clash at 10 this morning at the University of Wisconsin Fieldhouse in one D3 state semifinal. No. 3 Fennimore and fourth-ranked Random Lake are in the other semifinal.

Stratford is making its first team tournament appearance since 2004. The Tigers brought home silver trophies in 2001, 2002 and 2003. The Cardinals have been to state four times in the past five years and in addition to their championship last year, they were runners-up in 2012 and 2014.

"Spring Valley beat Coleman last year and they only graduated one kid," Stratford coach Joe Schwabe said. "They have a good core back from a state championship team and they're going to be hungry to repeat."

Both teams qualified a large number of wrestlers to the individual state tournament, Stratford 11 and Spring Valley/Elmwood 10, and those individuals had success. The Tigers had eight medalist with A.J. Schoenfuss (120), Jeremy Schoenherr (126), Kam Bornbach (182) and Tyson Kauffman (285) winning state titles, while Macey Kilty (106) and Mason Kauffman (152) were runners-up. The Cardinals had six medalists, including 220-pound state champion Ethan Hofacker.

"We went 3-1 against their kid at individual state," Schwabe said. "I'm sure they're going to be jacked up and ready to go. They have a lot of seniors on their team and we're still younger. We have our work cut out for us, especially losing one of our best wrestlers, Mason Kauffman."

For all the Stratford wrestlers, the chance to continue to practice and compete for a state title is what they've been hoping for the past couple years.

"We've been so close to getting to state the past two years and now we're here," Tyson Kauffman said. "We're so close to reaching our goal, but we still have to wrestle well to do it.

"It's exciting. It would be really neat to win a gold medal as an individual and as a team."